1930s Australia: the art deco designs ushering in a brave new world – in pictures

The 1930s were a time of rapid modernisation in Australia, with construction and engineering feats, such as fast rail and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, butting up against the political and social upheaval of the Great Depression and the second world war.

A new exhibition at NGV Australia, Brave New World: Australia 1930s, highlights how Australian artists and designers captured this moment in history. The exhibition spans photography, painting, sculpture, design, architecture and fashion and features more than 200 pieces, including works by Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Grace Cossington Smith, Max Dupain and Albert Namatjira.

The 1930s were the heyday of the travel poster. Australia first began to promote itself to the world as a land of beaches, sun and surf from the late 1920s. Travel posters using these motifs were commissioned throughout the following decade by railways, tourism bodies, shipping companies and airlines. To design the posters, companies such as the Australian National Travel Association commissioned graphic designers and artists such as Percy Trompf, James Northfield and Douglas Annand, who designed this one.

Western Australia – travel poster (1936)

A very different vision of nature and the land dominated Australia in the 1930s. The ‘brave new world’ of industrial technology centred on manufacturing and the transformation of cities into utopian sites of consumer culture and modernity. A vision of Australia as a pastoral paradise stood in contrast with this – an idea that Percy Trompf taps into in his travel poster for Western Australia showing a young girl, in a sunny dress, her arms full of wildflowers.

Australia’s 150th anniversary celebrations – travel poster (1938)

Known for his bold use of flat colour and striking design elements, Tom Purvis was one of the most important British poster designers of the pre-second world war period. This poster, issued in 1938 by the Australian National Travel Association, shows the head and shoulders of an imposing male figure who beckons potential visitors with his raised forefinger.

The Spirit of Progress promotional booklet (1937)

Launched in November 1937, the Spirit of Progress express passenger train ran through Victoria between Melbourne and the New South Wales state border at Albury – the longest non-stop train journey in Australia at that time, at an average speed of 84km/h. The Spirit of Progress was a source of immense pride to Victorians. Designed in the art deco streamlined style by the architectural firm Stephenson & Turner, the passenger carriages were fitted out to a level of comfort not previously seen in Australia.

Illustration for Kelvinator advertisement (1936)

The 1930s saw the development of affordable mass-produced whitegoods, which were advertised to women by appealing to domesticity, romance and modernity. Max Dupain’s photograph for a Kelvinator refrigerator ad combines all three: the cinematic angles, exaggerated lighting and glamorous models make it appear like a scene from a Hollywood romance.

Cover illustration for Masses, vol 1, No 1 by Jack Maughan (1932)

The Workers’ Art Club, which published Masses, was founded in Melbourne in 1931 by Nutter Buzacott, Jack Maughan, Noel Counihan and others. The following year it presented the first ‘worker-art’ exhibition of drawings by Maughan.

Cover illustration for Proletariat magazine (1932)

In the 1930s, worker groups in Australia were based upon similar organisations in Europe and the US (themselves modelled upon the Soviet Proletkult movement of the 1920s). These groups undertook a wide range of activities aimed at bringing literature and art to the service of workers, and encouraged workers to take part in artistic activities. Proletariat was printed and published by Melbourne University Labor Club, and this cover was illustrated by Noel Counihan.

Proletariat magazine (1934)

The hardships experienced during the Depression radicalised workers and the unemployed; strikes and demonstrations became common and were often met with police retaliation. In the early 1930s, a small number of artists in Sydney and Melbourne became active in the militant working-class struggle through their involvement in Communist party-affiliated cultural organisations.

Travel poster (1937)

Douglas Annand was at the forefront of modern graphic design in the 1930s and collaborated with the photographer Max Dupain on numerous occasions, incorporating Dupain’s photographs into his posters featuring photomontage, geometric design and bold typefaces. Annand began his career in Brisbane in 1931 before relocating to Sydney and working on the publications Home and Art in Australia. He designed the ceiling for the Australian pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition and in 1939 was art director of the Australian pavilion at New York World’s Fair.

Sydney bridge celebrations poster (1932)

Male lifesavers were key figures in imagery promoting Australia to tourists. Designed by Douglas Annand and Arthur Whitmore, this poster commemorating the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 positioned the lifesaver as the quintessential representative of Australian manhood. He proudly gestures towards the new bridge, his muscles as strong and protective as the steel girders that span the harbour.

Melbourne: Seventh City of the Empire – travel poster (1930)

Percy Trompf’s poster celebrates Melbourne’s first skyscraper, the Manchester Unity Building on the corner of Swanston and Collins streets. Designed by architect Marcus Barlow in the art deco ‘gothic’ style, it was built at high speed between 1930 and 1932 and provided much-needed employment during the Depression. At 12 storeys high and topped with a decorative tower, it was Melbourne’s tallest building and contained the city’s first escalators. It was considered a powerful symbol of the city’s modernity.

Spring in the Grampians – travel poster (1930s)

Pastoral imagery was frequently employed in posters to advertise travel into the ‘outback’. In Gert Sellheim’s Spring in the Grampians, a young woman is seated on an escarpment that stretches out into the landscape.

The seaside calls: Kodak advertisement (1930s)

Sellheim created a series of posters for the Australian National Travel Association promoting beach holidays that incorporated art deco motifs and typography – such as this one. His most famous design is the flying kangaroo logo for Qantas, which he created in 1947.